Guess what I’m doing tomorrow morning? Yes, I’m going for a run, but I’m also going to register for the Houston Marathon that will take place on January 18th, 2015. Is 2015 less than a year away??? Cripes. It’s my redemption race and my plan is to crush it.
Why am I signing up for THIS race when there’s a bajillion other marathons right around the corner from me? Well, I’m running THIS one for a few particular reasons
1) It’s large (13,000 for the marathon and 12,000 for the half marathon). The more people around me while running, the faster I seem to run with less effort. I like the hoopla, the crowds, the other runners going along with me. It distracts me from what I’m actually doing to myself 🙂
2) It’s flat. People talk about the “hills” somewhere in there, but it’s flat, plain and simple.
3) The race is in January so it shouldn’t be hot. It’s Texas so anything goes in January, but typically, it’s nice and cold and the start and cool at the finish.
4) I have a lot of friends in the Houston area and will get to visit them.
5) I got my BQ there in January of 2013. Bad weather that day, but good memories. I want another one.
The timing of this race was interesting, because it’s 11 weeks after the Beach 2 Battleship 1/2 Iron Distance Triathlon I’m doing at the end of October. I wasn’t sure if it would work to do both, but after looking back at Training Peaks, the timing for the 1/2 marathon run and training for the full marathon look pretty close. I thought the biking for the tri will only strengthen my legs and hopefully help keep me injury free – cross training is awesome. For a while, I was ready to ding dong ditch the triathlon and just do the relay again, but I really want to do it all. I don’t see why I can’t. So I am.
The quote that I have on my fridge so I can always remember it when I get hesitant to do something is this:
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
As for running recently, I started feeling better last week. I took Thursday off so I could go to my son’s Battle of the Books competition, so I felt I needed some miles on Friday. I am SICK of running in my hood so I headed to the track at UNCW to park and ended up going 7 miles on the cross city trail. It felt awesome and I finished in 58 minutes.
I had a wonderful and fulfilling 3.4 mile run with my son on Saturday. We just chat and gab the entire time, so we plan to run more often. What a wonderful way to bond with your kid! Then over Saturday and Sunday, I hauled almost 8 TONS of mulch into my yard while my husband was doing all the other things that needed to be done in the yard. Needless to say, my back and arms are a “little” tired, and I refused to do any more yard work today. Mulch makes me cringe.
Mulch, anyone?
I was so shocked and pleasantly surprised at what having energy was like on Sunday evening, even with all the yard work. It’s been weeks since I haven’t been either traveling or doing long runs, so it was refreshing to feel really good. My husband ran his 3rd 1/2 marathon after only running 5 miles to train (sorry for hogging every weekend morning for MY training, honey!), and I was so proud of him to finish in 2:05. I looked up a few full marathons for him to do, and it’s only a matter of time before he hits that “REGISTER” button. (As I rub my hands together and give him a maniacal laugh..). HE was the one who was knocked out last night, poor guy.
Hubby after his 1/2.
And redemption was mine.
Today was my redemption run. It didn’t start out to be one, but as I was running from the UNCW track again, I felt some fatigue from the weekend and probably from a few glasses of wine I had last night. Hey, they were in a pink flamingo glass so I blame that for going through them so quickly 🙂
I’m still relatively upset about what happened in Boston. I know, it’s just a race, it happens all the time. But still. I’m competitive so it’s really difficult not to separate the marathon from Boston. I pulled through my fatigue this morning like I was finishing the last 7 miles of the Boston Marathon. I kept going. I went faster. I imagined the cheering crowds, being able to cross that finish line with gusto, not with guts-o ( I was extremely nauseated when I crossed the finish line in Boston). I wanted to beat my “fresh” time from Friday. So I pushed it. I didn’t go all out as I am still in recovery mode, but I wanted a pace like I was imagining I would have run in Boston. I finished that 7 miles in 56:48, a minute and 12 seconds faster than Friday. And an 8:07 pace. I’m good with that. I got my redemption. There weren’t any crowds, there wasn’t a finish line, but I got to push through fatigue and the desire to cut the run short so I could finish. Now it’s time to put the bad feelings away and only remember the best part of Boston. I got redemption.
This is all I need to remember from the Boston Marathon.
Running Boston And Beyond 
Can you hear me cheering for you from here? You are my hero and I am very grateful to you for sharing your experience, which has helped me with mine.
I’m signed up for my next marathon too, Baystate in October. I’ll be working on speed all summer then back into marathon training as fall approaches. Your resolve helps me believe too. It’s going to be better the next time for us both.
When I started to train and race triathlons, I became much stronger all around. That is when my marathon PR occurred and I became a much happier runner since I had incorporated diversity into my training. I hope the same happens for you 😉
Nice job on your redemption run! Have fun with your triathlon training!
Amazing job on your redemption run, you are awesome and I hope the Houston Marathon and 1/2 Iron are all that you hope they are, because you deserve to rock them!!